Posted on 01/31/2009 5:18:27 PM PST by Abathar
HOUSTON -- Some 24,000 refinery workers from the Gulf of Mexico to Montana are preparing to head to the picket lines.
A labor agreement expires at midnight Saturday. On Thursday, union negotiators turned down the third and latest offer of a 2.5 percent wage increase for each of the next three years, in addition to changes in medical coverage.
A strike would affect 60 producers, according to the United Steelworkers, which represents more than 30,000 oil workers nationwide.
The nation's biggest refiner, Valero, said it will shut down some facilities if workers strike, as will European oil company BP.
Shell Oil Co., the lead negotiator for the industry, along with Exxon Mobil, said its refineries will continue to make gasoline, diesel and other fuels using nonunion or replacement workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
It’s Monday afternoon....
Exxon-Mobil, Conoco, etc....all do the same. Just MSM does not report the taxes and expenditures for new projects.
And yes, I make a dang nice living off the major oil companies, thank you very much.
Strikes and labor unrest are just part of the entire class structure that helps liberalism perpetuate itself.
It creates such “virtues” as class conscienceness, and helps keep those involved down. Strikes are very expensive for the participants as well as the businesses, a long strike will deplete the workers savings and send them into debt.
Yet, between the threat of violence as well as the propaganda of “unity” against the boss, thousands will fall into the trap and have done so in the past.
Its all part of what the liberals would love to bring down.
But but like we didn’t vote for socialism....like we voted for hope and change like you know...
There is a chance the well will not produce as well as it did when shut in without an expensive frac job to reopen the pore spaces, and it may not ever produce as well as it did again.
It is a common fallacy that you can just open and close the valve like a spigot and expect the well to just start up again like nothing happened.
You mean like '82, and '86, and '99?
Oh.
Wait.
Didn't happen, then, either. Don't hold your breath.
Why is it that only the people in the industry remember the years when companies went out of business right and left, when layoffs in the Oil and Gas industry were enormous, when not one rig was drilling in whole regions?
Oh, that never makes the news, but make money in years when things are good, to pay for the next massive investment to keep things going and you are eeeeeevil, and "Big" and all those other Socialist miseries which the free market can foist on the poor proletariat.
They raised the price 25 cents a gallon 'just in case' there's a strike...25 cents pure profit with no justification...
If the price goes up, they have to pay for the next load of fuel with the fuel they have to sell today. Think about it.
You should experience Alaska when the flow stops and the water separates out, in the 1,500 ft of permafrost.
And maybe the cost does fluctuate that wildly from day to day or hour to hour...But that doesn't seem to reflect the reality of it all...I have seen prices jump 25 cents and more all at once...I have never seen the price drop more than a few pennies at a time...
It's hard to believe that the cost of the gas would jump that quickly without falling just as quickly...Just word of this strike alone caused a 25 cent jump in my area...
There is one station I drive by daily (and sometime stop at) which is an Admiral station...The price fluctuates often and is often 10 to 15 cents below everyone else around who are never more than 1 to 2 cents off from each other...I'm thinking this single station may actually represent the rise and fall in their cost of the product...
Gee, thanks...(LOL!)
North Dakota has its moments, too.
Thankfully I am on the exploration end of things, and do not have the headaches most of the seasoned production hands have had.
If they are moving enough volume, they are keeping the lights on by moving volume, not making their profit on margin. Much depends on the supplier, too.
About 40 miles from where I live, gas is 25 cents a gallon cheaper, and the retailers prices are usually within a couple of cents of each other if the retailers are within a couple of miles of each other. It is difficult to say who is getting what cut of the difference, though.
Prices fall slower because they have already paid for the fuel they are pumping now at yesterday's (higher) prices. When the price is heading up, it is in anticipation of paying more for the next load. The margin might balloon a few cents on one side of the curve or the other, but I would wager no one is making a killing either way.
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